August 21

With her daughter to care for and her abuela to help support, high school senior Emoni Santiago has to make the tough decisions, and do what must be done. The one place she can let her responsibilities go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness. Still, she knows she doesn’t have enough time for her school’s new culinary arts class, doesn’t have the money for the class’s trip to Spain—and shouldn’t still be dreaming of someday working in a real kitchen. But even with all the rules she has for her life—and all the rules everyone expects her to play by—once Emoni starts cooking, her only real choice is to let her talent break free.

Þis is wīfa gūþ, swā swā hit is wera. Hīe habbaþ lange genōg gebīdad þæt hīe hira tīman habban . . . Þis næfre næs ānes wīfes, oððe twēgra, tāl. Hit wæs hira ealra tāl . . . On middre nihte āwæcþ wīf ond findþ hire lēofan burh mid līge befangen. Tīen swā þūhte endelēase geara gefeoht betwux Grēcum ond Trōianum sind geendode. Trōie is gefeallen. Fram þǣm Trōiscum wīfum, þāra wyrd nū on Grēca handum līþ, oþ þǣre Amazoniscan cyningdohtor, sēo for him wið Achillem feaht, oþ Penelope, sēo Odysseus cyme bīdaþ, oþ þǣm þrīm gydenum, þāra geflīt hit eall ongann, þis sind þāra wīfa tāla, þāra līf, lufu ond geflīt þurh þis lange ond sārlicu gūþ ā onwended wǣron. Wīfes epos, stranglīce mid nīwum līfe gefylled, Þūsend Scipa setteþ þā wīf, mǣdenu ond gydena on middan þæs Westenes māran tāles, þe ǣfre gereht wæs.